Three visual aids in one spot this week! An overview of the 4F Trauma Types discussed in Healing Benefits of the 4F Trauma Responses. Directly below is an at a glance review of the types broken down by what they have in common but respond in opposite ways. Think of the proverbial “opposite sides of the same coin”.
Fight and Flight are energy, (one asserts, while the other rushes) while Freeze and Fawn hide. One physically hides by isolating, while Fawn hides their identity. Fight and Freeze are both ruled entirely by the outer critic but they respond in opposite ways. Meanwhile, Flight and Fawn overcompensate for their perceived flaws. Flight believes their abilities, or what they want to contribute to the world is flawed, while Fawn believes their whole self is flawed.
Finally, we arrive at Fight and Fawn’s dominance issues. Fight dominates others, while Fawn is dominated by others. Flight and Freeze don’t want anything to do with that, so they are the escape artists. One does so by thinking and doing (left brain dissociation Trauma Glossary 2), while the other isolates and daydreams.
Below is an overview of the 4F’s as a trauma response. Have you ever heard of how our thoughts and feelings are what drive our actions? Well, here it is. The key is, as always, process the feelings and work on thought corrections. They will produce better actions, which will lead to better outcomes.
Below is a continuation of the trauma responses. Here you see the action, which is the trauma response, followed by the challenge for each type if they want to reap the rewards of their accidental mastery.
